The tabletopping Blues have lived up to their Super Rugby Pacific favouritism, dispatching the plucky Highlanders 35-6 to advance to next week's semi-finals at Eden Park.
First-five Beauden Barrett - the man brought in to deliver a Super Rugby crown to the Blues two years ago - spearheaded the victory with two tries and a hand in another, after the southerners reduced the contest to a street fight early.
Both sides were rocked by late defections to captains Dalton Papalii and Aaron Smith, with the Blues flanker undergoing appendix surgery overnight and the All Blacks halfback suffering a groin injury in training.
Smith's withdrawal gave understudy Folou Fakatava a chance to push for All Blacks honours in a starting role.
For most of the opening half, the underdog visitors - and officials - frustrated the red-hot title frontrunners, making mockery of those critics that insisted they did not deserve a place in the playoffs.
First-five Marty Banks had them ahead early, stealing field position with a crafty 50-22 touchfinder and then slotting a penalty for the lead.
Over the next half hour, the home side struggled for continuity, but when flanker Akira Ioane finally crossed the chalk, the match officials colluded to find no conclusive evidence of him forcing it.
Instead, hooker Andrew Makalio was red-carded for a shoulder shot to the head of Blues lock Tom Robinson and the Highlanders were forced to play on with only 14 men for 20 minutes.
Regardless, Banks doubled the Highlanders lead and you had the sneaky feeling this just might be the night that David knocked off Goliath, but Ioane restored some sanity to the pecking order, when brother Rieko sent him charging between the posts and the officials weren't able to deny him this time.
Lock James Tucker also crossed the tryline, but his effort was ruled out by a double movement, before first-five Beauden Barrett fended off Highlanders prop Ethan de Groot and scythed through the defence, providing the Blues with a 14-6 halftime lead.
Soon after the restart, the Blues won a lineout near halfway, and second-five Roger Tuivasa-Sheck made a break that saw centre Rieko Ioane and then Barrett handle, as the playmaker scored his second try.
Replacement winger AJ Lam had a try, when Barrett pumped a high kick from halfway, Banks spilled the catch and Lam chased down the loose ball to score.
Tuivasa-Sheck finally had the first try of his crosscode switch from league, when he took a pass from No.8 Hoskins Sotutu and cut back 30 metres with a huge grin on his face.
On a weekend when All Blacks loose forwards stocks took a dent - with Papalii and Chiefs flanker Sam Cane both sidelined, and Crusaders star Ethan Blackadder now under an injury cloud - the selectors received some better news, when blindside Shannon Frizell returned from six weeks' absence for the Highlanders.
The result - extending the Blues' franchise-record winning streak to 14 games - means the Crusaders will host the Chiefs in next week's semis, while the Blues await the lowest-ranked winners of the fourth Brumbies v Hurricanes quarter-final at Eden Park.
Blues 35 (Barrett 2, A Ioane, Tuivasa-Sheck, Lam tries; Perofeta 5 conversions) Highlanders 6 (Banks 2 penalties)
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